


death has nothing on you

by Still_sleepless



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff and Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-06-24 02:33:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19714525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Still_sleepless/pseuds/Still_sleepless
Summary: In an era of persistent insignificance, the world spins on it's axis and carries billions of people who forget that they've been given the gift of life. They're living between pivotal moments of time, born too late to witness the dawn of civilisations and too early to witness the fall of society.It is during this period of mundane trivialities that one thing happens. Just one very important thing. A love story.>In which Wooyoung falls over and over until he forgets he's skyborne, forgets he ever left the ground.





	death has nothing on you

**Author's Note:**

> • and if we skipped to the end we'd still be smiling.

There's no easy way to live. Existence itself is terrifying and an inescapable unknown. Something to be chased after until one day you reach a finish line that you hadn't been expecting. This is how Wooyoung lives, chasing euphoria out of a fear of missing out. It's not pretty. It's not even admirable but it's all he has.

"Wooyoung, let's go." Seonghwa's voice is distant, barely entering Wooyoung's realm of perception as he sits staring out into their balcony garden. The tulips are dying, edges turning an uneasy grey. Wooyoung doesn't know what he's doing wrong but water and sunlight doesn't seem to be enough.

Slowly, Wooyoung dons his shoes and jacket, ready to join Seonghwa in pursuit of blissed out ignorance. Side by side they escape into the darkening evening air, fingers barely touching in companionship.

This is the night they meet, colliding in a maelstrom of alcohol and loud music and sparks that have nothing to do with the lighting.

This is the night Wooyoung falls for the first time.

Like most things, it's cliche, almost uninspired in how Yeosang spills his drink upon Wooyoung. The club's dimly lit dance floor does them both no favours. But that's of little consequence, after all it's not the beginning or the end that really matters. It's everything else, all that comes inbetween.

Yeosang is promptly pulled away by his apologetic friends, but before they do Wooyoung manages a quick exchange of numbers and names.

Their date is at the beach, alone on a wide stretch of bleached white sand that sticks to their skin when they have their first kiss. And their second. And their third.

Happiness is as potent as morphine when you know there's no end. Even though there's always an end, everything ends.

* * *

"Sometimes, I wonder if you're a different person than who you used to be", Yunho says one day, as they're watching a movie in his living room, Seonghwa in the kitchen making popcorn. It comes out of nowhere and Wooyoung is surprised, bordering on startled by how aggressive the words are. But when he lifts his head, Yunho is smiling. "You're happier than I've ever seen you."

"I am." Wooyoung nudges Yunho slightly, comfort found in his friend's presence.

"I'm glad."

And that's all they say as Seonghwa returns, eyes once again focusing on the movie. But Wooyoung doesn't stop grinning, even when Seonghwa pokes at him in confusion and complains. 

* * *

Moving in was the next logical step. Two years of dependence and faith breeds a desire for closeness that can't be fulfilled easily. So, Wooyoung moves out and Yeosang welcomes him with open arms.

"Which one is better?" holding up two colour cards against their bedroom wall, unfurnished and lacking the homeliness that they'll soon give it.

"They're both the same", Wooyoung replies, squinting from the doorway.

"No, this is ivory", Yeosang juts out his left arm, "and this is cream", he mirrors the movement with his right. They're completely identical.

"Ohh, I see it now", it's mocking and artifical and Yeosang turns around huffily, scoffing at the sarcasm. But he betrays himself with a giggle and Wooyoung swoops into hug him, chin upon his shoulder.

"Ivory. I choose ivory." The next day they begin painting with brushes dashed with ivory that doesn't compare to the smoothness of Yeosang's skin in the mornings.

This is bliss.

* * *

Wooyoung has been running after his own mind his entire life, running in circles trying to decipher a meaning. _There must be a meaning,_ he doesn't trust a god that would fail to give them a point.

He finds meaning in Yeosang. He finds it in his eyes, his mouth, his skin. He finds it in the words Yeosang whispers when they've both had a long day and he finds it in the moments between breaths, deep and heavy.

* * *

Wooyoung falls for the second time when Yeosang asks his hand in marriage.

He answers the only way he can, the only way his heart can let him.

They spiral from here on outwards, further away from any concept of truth that there is. They only have one truth, Yeosang clutching onto Wooyoung and breathing out his name.

The wedding is dotted with tulips, bunches wrapped in red ribbons and thriving with more than just sunlight and water. _Wooyoung finds out that desire is more important than either of these, his desire to live transposed onto the things around him._

* * *

It's simple to let the years flow like water. They move through decades of what Wooyoung knows to be a blessing. Such joy can only be a blessing, even if he's not a man of God.

It stops, as all things do. Two months shy of their anniversary, Wooyoung falls for the last time. 

Accidents happen and they happen more often with age, collecting like a debt of distractions.

It is unimaginably easy for Wooyoung to let go of everything. Just one last shallow breath and then eyes fluttering shut delicately. He does it only once Yeosang is by his side, hospital moving swiftly around them.

"I love you", Yeosang says, laugh lines showing even when he's crying, too built up over his many years of life. It's a cliché, Wooyoung knows, just like so much of their lives together. But coming from Yeosang's lips it sounds like heaven. He savours it.

Then he's gone.

* * *

There's no easy way to live. But Wooyoung did with Yeosang by his side, reaching the finish line not terrified but content. 


End file.
